Gary_Yngve

I'll hire a few suicide bombers to take out your tank.

I think this is my favorite non-mountain photo from my recent trip:

I put some up at http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/gyngve/clouds/

Here's a collage of the pics with where they were taken:

Yeah, the printer in the lab made them overly blue. I printed them out a few minutes beforehand so I didn't have any time to play color-correction games.

A map of where I went. A good mix of mountains, beaches, fjords, lakes...

some pictures: http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/gyngve/Lofoten/

That meal came out to be 180 Kr. The following night though I splurged on a 360 Kr meal to satisfy a lamb craving that I got from walking out from the mountains through a sheep pasture.

I would like to add that staying at a cushy hut is total aid. When you know that you can come back to a warm fuzzy hut as opposed to a cold damp tent, all of a sudden you feel much more inclined to go out and climb something.

Tuesday: Arrive in Svolvær in the evening. ID some peaks and discover the cloud level to be 500m. Yuck. Locals blame it on the west wind and don't see it getting better any time soon. They tell me how gloriously sunny and warm it was in the beginning of May. Hike a mile out of town in the rain and pitch the tent because I'm a cheap bastard. Curse the condensation throughout the night. Wednesday: Hang out in town while reformulating plans. Trollfjord would be miserable in these conditions. Ah-hah! Moskenesoya has peaks at lower elevations and it has a MOUNTAIN HUT! Take the bus from Austvagoya to Moskenesoya and hike up to the hut in pretty grim weather. Can see bits of a peak with an elegant snow ridge (Støvla)... put it on the to-do list. Fire up the wood stove and start drying out gear... Thursday: Skies are gray and every half hour, it gusts and hails couscous-size pellets for a few minutes. Decide to check out that peak. Hardest part looks like getting to the plateau where the ridge starts. Wet slabs look impossible, but I do see a snow finger piercing through some cliffs. Hike across the valley and around the thawing lake. Choose the wrong gully to go up and get thwarted by a bergshrund. See another gully that might go and try it too. Gets too sketch, downclimb. Check out a couple knobs to look at routes. Notice some cool stuff above the hut (Munkan). From one of the knobs, notice that I didn't traverse around the lake far enough before going up. Friday: More of the same wonderful weather. Climbed Munkan by the standard route (snow slog), having to take two breaks on the way to hide from the mean nasty weather. Cloud level seems to be rising, got decent views from top though flat lighting. Descended back to the hut, brewed up, and climbed Munkan again by a couloir (snow to 45). Get back to the hut, chat with two friendly locals who showed up. Temperatures drop, and it snows 1 cm overnight. Saturday: The fresh snow wasn't enough to be a concern, and the colder temps improved snow conditions. Cloud level seemed to be rising more, so I decided to go for Støvla, this time going up the correct way. I traverse what seems like way too long around the lake before going up the correct gully. Then begins the MF traverse -- at least a quarter-mile -long traverse of 35-40 degree snow above big bad cliffs. Snow was good for kick-stepping, though a little bit of a crust meant I had to work harder for each step. Finally, I reached the plateau, and psyched to be on easier ground, raced up a 15-degree snow slope with perfect snow for slogging. Rewarded with great views from the top. I then stared across the lake at the highest mountain on the island, Hermansdalstinden. For the past few days, if one mountain was going to be in the clouds, it was this one. Today, it was mostly cloud-free. I decided that if I wasn't too wasted from going back down the MF traverse, I'd try it too. Got down, went the rest of the way around the lake, and started up H. Some fine axe technique on turf was necessary to get past a few steep sections. Soon I reached the broad shoulder leading to the summit. 25-degree snow took my up to the summit block, where I stared at 3rd-4th class blocky granite that was all covered with snow. I looked at a few options, deciding too hard or bad fall consequences and almost turned around before I saw something that would go. About 50 feet of mixed climbing took me to the summit ridge. This ridge had been blasted by storms for the past X days, and was a blend of sastrugi, powder, and rimed rock. About two hundred feet of ridge brought me to the true summit. Looked around and took some photos before the wind started chilling me. Took my time heading down the summit block, given the nature of the terrain. Plunge-stepped most of the way down the mountain before finishing the circumnavigation of the lake and returning to the hut 12 hours later. Sunday: Temps are warming and skies are clearing. Chat with some locals who tell me that there is a way through the slabs (when dry) to get to the plateau below Støvla. Hike out to Forsfjord (where hiking involved aiding off bushes, much axe-on-turf technique, etc.) and crawl over moss-covered boulders to Vinstadfjord. Walk though the village of Vinstad, consisting of about 10 houses and a hundred sheep. Go over a pass and see a magnificent beach looking north in front of me. Set up camp and head down to the beach for sunset. Unfortunately, clouds in the distant north. Monday: Do some excellent airy class-2 ridgewalking above camp. Gorgeous views. Notice rock walls that look like El Cap and Halfdome. Go down to the beach and watch a sunset without clouds in the north. The only day of bluebird skies. Tuesday: Play at the beach, hike out, take ferry back to Reine, eat a huge meal at Moskenes (salad, boiled potatoes, two huge 3/4-inch salmon steaks, cheesecake -- the first three items had a herbal butter sauce drizzled over them and the cheesecake was topped with vanilla cream -- the restaurant owner was impressed I ate it all). Met Mystery Mountain Couple. Used to be Seattlites, now living in New Mexico. They did FAs with Fred Beckey, did expeditions in pre-Soviet Afghanistan, etc. They were being very humble and modest so I didn't want to ask them who they were and make them tell me that they are famous. Hike up to the hut again, hoping to catch some NE light in the early morning. Clouds blow in. Wednesday: Back to gray and low cloud levels again. Take the ferry from Moskenes to Bodø, where I am now. Lofoten kicks ass!!!!

That's like the Mounties Basic Rock II trip: Ok, we're at the base of a cliff. Everyone put your helmets on now!

The other day I ran into three of them as they were celebrating graduating by drinking beer in the city park (it's customary for the cops to look the other way the two weeks before the national holiday). Anyway, they told me something very insightful: "We learned British English in school. But there are times that we cannot understand Tony Blair because he uses big words. But we can always understand George Bush." Anyway, they were really cool and were glad that there are many Americans who disagree with Bush. They also told me that they learned from "Sex in the City" that in America you cannot drink in public but you can hide beer in a paper bag.

I'm on my way to the Lofoten Islands. I'm in Bodø right now, and the ferry leaves for Svolvær in a few hours. Then I take a bus, and at 23:00, I should be at the isthmus that connects to Austvagoya's wild NE side. Then it's about a 1000m slog up to the plateau where I can access the backside of the famous Trollfjord as well as other cool stuff. It's pretty much 24-hour light now even though Midnight Sun isn't until another two weeks. It was gray and drizzly in the morning, but there are patches of blue sky now. Weather seems quite fickle, but it't nice knowing that I can haul ass when the weather is good and not worry about darkness.

You can check out the Lofoten guide from the AAC.

from Stockholm. 1 min left on my internet. was in Copenhagen yesterday (royal wedding was then!). cool outdoor public-accessible climbing wall near trainst ation

This talk of thongs reminded me that Timmy O'Neill packs one of his girlfriend's panties as a summit treat on a long expedition.

I googled for the "classic babe scale" and couldn't find it. Guess it's not so classic.

I don't find Friends to be funny. I think Seinfeld and The Seventies Show are funny.

There's some crevasses, but they are largely avoidable. When we were back there in August a few years ago, we never had to go over any sketchy snowbridges or do any exposed traverses above gapers. If you traverse around 7200-7600 feet, things should be pretty simple. I was also on a two-man rope team with a dude who couldn't reliably self-arrest (dislocated his shoulder twice the previous day).

I agree. I picked up some wicking briefs from Sierra Trading Post for $2 each a while ago. Just that my uninformed [not uniformed] opinion was that women wear thongs to be sexy, not to be comfortable.

it is perfect for holding my skis together, and filtering coffee, so it is in my book can a "full-strength" thong double as an extra runner? The thought of a "full-strength" wedgie scares me.

I especially hate the \ because half the time you need \\.

That would be a great companion for the wicking thong in the color of sweatpea. http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?productId=47724190&storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&langId=-1 Soft, silky fabric, no panty lines and no seams make this thong great for everyday wear. Soft, breathable fabric wicks moisture and dries quickly Sits at the hips, with high leg openings for comfort and freedom of movement; thong styling eliminates panty lines Soft, plush elastic at leg openings and gentle, non-absorbent elastic at waistband enhance comfort Rib-knit crotch panel for added modesty Logo is knitted in to eliminate chafing

Yay! I made it through the entire cc.com picnic without a photo of me as the object of ridicule!

www.irfanview.com Irfanview: image viewer with slideshow feature and simple image edits/conversions www.jdmcox.com USA Photomaps: topo software that downloads and caches data from Microsoft Terraserver